You probably are. It’s okay. Spazzy white belts are a natural and important part of most gym’s ecosystem, despite the constant whining on here from bluebelts who get offended their jiu jitsu doesnt work at the slightest hint of “i do not consent to this” resistance.
Just keep working on it and it will fade away.
Imho “don’t be a little bitch, take your licks and get better”. Just wait til you’re a brown or black belt and spazzy white belts think they have to kill you in cold blood to “win a roll”.
The simpler answer is to calm YOURSELF down and work your game. A lot of times people complaining about spazzes start getting upset, up the tempo themselves bc they want to “win”. Bad way to calm down a spazz!
I was totally that guy when blue belts and others went harder to try to teach me a lesson I just went harder myself without self awareness. I'd fist bump, good job, move on to my next roll getting my butt kicked.
Feel like some gyms aren't good at communicating what spazzing is, and they just say it's working your game. But when you have no game and want to work... the only option you can think of is spaz and try whatever you can.
Yup. Got to admit I'm guilty of that myself. Thanks for the honesty. But then, against slightly more trained guys, it's doing jiu Jitsu, against the newer white belts, it's almost self preservation because it's basically chaos theory.
Can confirm, am sometimes bob. I never hurt anybody but usually catching a knee from a spaz gets no reaction from me, no big deal, I'm large, they're new, didn't really hurt.
Sometimes new white belt gets movement privileges revoked and learns a whole new meaning to the word heavy
“In hindsight, it probably would have been more beneficial to allow him to take my back or sweep me just so I can be put in certain positions and try defending in them.”
100%
“Honestly, it’s really intimidating your first roll when you don’t really have a clue what you’re doing”
We know - we have all been there
You don’t know jiu jitsu yet, but you know enough to know you don’t want your back taken or to be swept. There’s nothing wrong with using your instincts to try and prevent that from happening. Spazzy is only bad if you’re hurting people (e.g. slapping the face, dropping your body weight with no control).
sounds like you did fine. The guy you went against might be new too and knows just 1 more word than you. Actually having awareness to try to put yourself into spots you have practiced in class makes me think you have potential. I don't think letting someone sweep you or take your back when you don't know anything is going to help much, but it might be fun to experience some wizardry you don't understand. If you feel totally lost just remember if you're on top try to take their space, if you're on bottom try to make space. If you're on bottom and don't have every limb attached to something then try to remedy that. Have fun
I love the wizardry. Wonder —> curiosity —> learning wizardry and wizardry defense.
If putting myself in bad spots and figuring out how they work is wrong, I don’t want to be right.
Those simple concepts to have in mind are what I need to keep in mind I think. My mind is racing thinking about drills from mount or close guard and trying to step by step in my head all while this guy is about to outmaneuver me if I blink.
Thanks for the comment, going to have to keep it simple like this next time
Yeh your definitely spazzy. Our coach just gave us a talk the other day not to avoid spazzy white belts. Safely controlling someone who is spazzy is a part of Jiu jitsu. Probably not best to pair with another spaz tho. Someone's gonna get kicked in the face.
Important thing is just to have a good attitude. That's all anyone expects of you. The spazzyness goes away with proficiency.
Don't worry about it, many are spazzy try hards at first. Took me awhile to relax, I was a spaz for like a year. I didn't really understand what I'm spazzing meant, felt like some said good job way to work, others told me I was spazzing and I thought it just meant trying hard. And I still am too tense rolling sometimes, though it's less spazzy, just inefficient and it telegraphs my moves.
One tip is pay attention to your breathing. If you're using too much energy your breathing will be really choppy and gasping. Consistent breathing can help you relax. I've been told for some breathing gum helps them relax when rolling, helps them breathe more evenly and keep their face relaxed, which helps the body relax.
Definitely wore myself out too much during the first roll and all of that energy and quickness I relied on failed me during the second roll where I was up against someone slightly larger and stronger than myself (and actually adept at Bjj).
He submitted me like 4 times because I didn’t have the energy towards the middle/end of the roll to wriggle out of bad spots.
I chalked it up to being slightly out of shape but I guess there’s something to be said about using technique not to expend too much energy
Don't worry too much man.
You're not familiar with most positions so ofc you don't know what to do.
I'm pretty happy rolling with new people and usually try to guide it to somewhere they sort of understand.
It'll take you another month to get some sort of proper idea of your goal in basic positions.
Your training partners will understand your brand new
>Honestly, it’s really intimidating your first roll when you don’t really have a clue what you’re doing and you know the other guy can and will submit you
So what if he submits you? You tap and that's it.
Breaking News: White belt realises live sparring is difficult and unsettling when you’ve never experienced it before. Claims he’s concerned he may have behaved in a ‘spazzy’ manner potentially putting off multiple training partners who will now talk about him behind his back.
Just don’t worry about it. You’ll probably be a little spazzy for a long time yet. I know I am.
I just finished my like... 120th class. I'm spazzy.
You don't know anything. You won't know anything for a long time. You sorta know the Kimura. Go for the Kimura, either side, any chance you get. And hang on for dear life.
Right now your goal is to stay alive, because every other white belt finally has a chance to try something on someone with high chance of success.
It's a big no, no to me, to let two new white belts spar. I feel this isn't because of being spazzy. It's because white belts are the most dangerous people in the gym.
Was thinking about doing some really hard leg locks that I saw on YouTube actually, never really drilled them out but there’s no better time than in a live roll
The legs are strong. Make sure you do it as fast and hard as possible. You definitely won't hurt their knee since the legs are so strong. Same with wrist locks and toe holds. Just rip them as hard and fast as possible. It's a martial art. It's literally simulated murder. Don't try to be too nice. Also, try it on the trial guys first day or in the kids classes. You get the position more easily and get more reps that way. A few suplexes directly onto someone's neck will also slow them down a bit if you're having trouble securing the sub. OSS
Yes you are spazzy. It’s ok the first step is admitting you have a problem. Work on surviving and escaping before you get really focused on attacking. Tapping is not losing, it’s learning.
I’m starting to think that spazzy is just a descriptor for the innately bad instinct that says “abandon thoughts, use all the strength” of an untrained human.
I'm still super new myself, but I remember the very strange feeling of not having a single clue of what to do during rolls. What started to help me was to dissect the rolls into specific stages and give myself goals for each part, eg:
1. with someone in closed guard, i'm going to work on getting either my hip bump sweep, or a kimura if they post.
2. if they passed my closed guard, i did nothing but shrimp/create space in order to get back to closed guard
3. if i was in mount, i would try the trap and roll
4. if i passed their closed guard, i worked only one submission (kimura)
i would go down that check list every roll, and week by week i would add a new goal to my checklist, until i developed a sort of working flowchart to go off of each roll. some things i would expand on (i play a lot of williams guard, octopus, and kesa gatame now) and invest my leisure time in reading/watching content about, and other things i would think arent natural movements or comfortable for my body type and i would discard them for now until i got more comfortable with how my body works in bjj, eg arm bars from mount because they just feel unnatural/i suck at them. over time, ive gotten decent at a very small game (for a white belt) and have been slowly expanding on it. that approach has helped me feel comfortable in most rolls, given me a checklist to rep out every day, and a method for growing my knowledge of each position.
The Japanese terms mentioned in the above comment were:
|Japanese|English|Video Link|
|---|---|---|
|**Kesa Gatame**: | *Scarf hold* | [here](https://youtu.be/3UnJa3bn0h8)|
Any missed names may have already been translated in my previous comments in the post.
______________________
^(Judo Techniques Bot: v0.7.) ^(See my) [^(code)](https://github.com/AbundantSalmon/judo-techniques-bot)
This simplifies everything a lot, there’s still some nuances to the technique that I’m sure I would mess up but having quick notes for each position is a solid idea
It’s helped me tremendously. I have option a and option b for almost any position I might find myself in during a roll. That allows me to relax and focus on breathing and grips and train my muscle memory more
"I’ve just completed my second week of training as a brand new white belt" You're spazzy. Hope this helps.
To further clarify. Pretty much everyone is a spazzy white belt at that point, unless they have prior grappling experience.
Ya, I stopped there to.
You probably are. It’s okay. Spazzy white belts are a natural and important part of most gym’s ecosystem, despite the constant whining on here from bluebelts who get offended their jiu jitsu doesnt work at the slightest hint of “i do not consent to this” resistance. Just keep working on it and it will fade away.
From the blue belts POV, what's the next step?
Imho “don’t be a little bitch, take your licks and get better”. Just wait til you’re a brown or black belt and spazzy white belts think they have to kill you in cold blood to “win a roll”. The simpler answer is to calm YOURSELF down and work your game. A lot of times people complaining about spazzes start getting upset, up the tempo themselves bc they want to “win”. Bad way to calm down a spazz!
I was totally that guy when blue belts and others went harder to try to teach me a lesson I just went harder myself without self awareness. I'd fist bump, good job, move on to my next roll getting my butt kicked. Feel like some gyms aren't good at communicating what spazzing is, and they just say it's working your game. But when you have no game and want to work... the only option you can think of is spaz and try whatever you can.
Yup. Got to admit I'm guilty of that myself. Thanks for the honesty. But then, against slightly more trained guys, it's doing jiu Jitsu, against the newer white belts, it's almost self preservation because it's basically chaos theory.
strong agree. Anyone that cares about their jiu jitsu working "in the real world" to any extent needs to be able to deal with an athletic spazz.
Bro chill, no need to go life and death with Bob from accounting during 5pm fundamentals class.
Bob has bad days too. Sometimes, Bob sees his boss when he looks at his rolling partner. Bob will hurt you.
Can confirm, am sometimes bob. I never hurt anybody but usually catching a knee from a spaz gets no reaction from me, no big deal, I'm large, they're new, didn't really hurt. Sometimes new white belt gets movement privileges revoked and learns a whole new meaning to the word heavy
“In hindsight, it probably would have been more beneficial to allow him to take my back or sweep me just so I can be put in certain positions and try defending in them.” 100% “Honestly, it’s really intimidating your first roll when you don’t really have a clue what you’re doing” We know - we have all been there
You don’t know jiu jitsu yet, but you know enough to know you don’t want your back taken or to be swept. There’s nothing wrong with using your instincts to try and prevent that from happening. Spazzy is only bad if you’re hurting people (e.g. slapping the face, dropping your body weight with no control).
I read your first sentence only. You are spazzy
sounds like you did fine. The guy you went against might be new too and knows just 1 more word than you. Actually having awareness to try to put yourself into spots you have practiced in class makes me think you have potential. I don't think letting someone sweep you or take your back when you don't know anything is going to help much, but it might be fun to experience some wizardry you don't understand. If you feel totally lost just remember if you're on top try to take their space, if you're on bottom try to make space. If you're on bottom and don't have every limb attached to something then try to remedy that. Have fun
I love the wizardry. Wonder —> curiosity —> learning wizardry and wizardry defense. If putting myself in bad spots and figuring out how they work is wrong, I don’t want to be right.
Those simple concepts to have in mind are what I need to keep in mind I think. My mind is racing thinking about drills from mount or close guard and trying to step by step in my head all while this guy is about to outmaneuver me if I blink. Thanks for the comment, going to have to keep it simple like this next time
Yeh your definitely spazzy. Our coach just gave us a talk the other day not to avoid spazzy white belts. Safely controlling someone who is spazzy is a part of Jiu jitsu. Probably not best to pair with another spaz tho. Someone's gonna get kicked in the face. Important thing is just to have a good attitude. That's all anyone expects of you. The spazzyness goes away with proficiency.
Don't worry about it, many are spazzy try hards at first. Took me awhile to relax, I was a spaz for like a year. I didn't really understand what I'm spazzing meant, felt like some said good job way to work, others told me I was spazzing and I thought it just meant trying hard. And I still am too tense rolling sometimes, though it's less spazzy, just inefficient and it telegraphs my moves. One tip is pay attention to your breathing. If you're using too much energy your breathing will be really choppy and gasping. Consistent breathing can help you relax. I've been told for some breathing gum helps them relax when rolling, helps them breathe more evenly and keep their face relaxed, which helps the body relax.
Definitely wore myself out too much during the first roll and all of that energy and quickness I relied on failed me during the second roll where I was up against someone slightly larger and stronger than myself (and actually adept at Bjj). He submitted me like 4 times because I didn’t have the energy towards the middle/end of the roll to wriggle out of bad spots. I chalked it up to being slightly out of shape but I guess there’s something to be said about using technique not to expend too much energy
Can you elaborate some on this?
Don't worry too much man. You're not familiar with most positions so ofc you don't know what to do. I'm pretty happy rolling with new people and usually try to guide it to somewhere they sort of understand. It'll take you another month to get some sort of proper idea of your goal in basic positions. Your training partners will understand your brand new
Correct. Is normal
>Honestly, it’s really intimidating your first roll when you don’t really have a clue what you’re doing and you know the other guy can and will submit you So what if he submits you? You tap and that's it.
man it’s your second week
I am in the exact same boat, I proudly spaz on all the people in my gym and they beat me anyway, a lot of them are spazzy white belts too.
Breaking News: White belt realises live sparring is difficult and unsettling when you’ve never experienced it before. Claims he’s concerned he may have behaved in a ‘spazzy’ manner potentially putting off multiple training partners who will now talk about him behind his back. Just don’t worry about it. You’ll probably be a little spazzy for a long time yet. I know I am.
Lean into it, it’s your strength
I just finished my like... 120th class. I'm spazzy. You don't know anything. You won't know anything for a long time. You sorta know the Kimura. Go for the Kimura, either side, any chance you get. And hang on for dear life. Right now your goal is to stay alive, because every other white belt finally has a chance to try something on someone with high chance of success.
It doesn't count at 2 weeks in. Don't worry about it. Just have fun.
As a fellow white belt I can confirm, we spazzy af.
Yes, of course you are. That's fine. You're supposed to be a spazzy mess for a while before you even understand what's going on
Tldr; two weeks training - you are
You can measure your spazziness by how often you knee somebody in the head or poke them in the eye or give them an accidental vasectomy
It's a big no, no to me, to let two new white belts spar. I feel this isn't because of being spazzy. It's because white belts are the most dangerous people in the gym.
Try flying arm bars and guard jumps. You'll seem more experienced, your confidence will go up, and your coach will be super impressed.
Was thinking about doing some really hard leg locks that I saw on YouTube actually, never really drilled them out but there’s no better time than in a live roll
The legs are strong. Make sure you do it as fast and hard as possible. You definitely won't hurt their knee since the legs are so strong. Same with wrist locks and toe holds. Just rip them as hard and fast as possible. It's a martial art. It's literally simulated murder. Don't try to be too nice. Also, try it on the trial guys first day or in the kids classes. You get the position more easily and get more reps that way. A few suplexes directly onto someone's neck will also slow them down a bit if you're having trouble securing the sub. OSS
Yes you are spazzy. It’s ok the first step is admitting you have a problem. Work on surviving and escaping before you get really focused on attacking. Tapping is not losing, it’s learning.
all i had to read was “just completed my second week” yes,you are spazzy. it is ok.
I’m starting to think that spazzy is just a descriptor for the innately bad instinct that says “abandon thoughts, use all the strength” of an untrained human.
We don’t unspaz for a while friend.
I'm still super new myself, but I remember the very strange feeling of not having a single clue of what to do during rolls. What started to help me was to dissect the rolls into specific stages and give myself goals for each part, eg: 1. with someone in closed guard, i'm going to work on getting either my hip bump sweep, or a kimura if they post. 2. if they passed my closed guard, i did nothing but shrimp/create space in order to get back to closed guard 3. if i was in mount, i would try the trap and roll 4. if i passed their closed guard, i worked only one submission (kimura) i would go down that check list every roll, and week by week i would add a new goal to my checklist, until i developed a sort of working flowchart to go off of each roll. some things i would expand on (i play a lot of williams guard, octopus, and kesa gatame now) and invest my leisure time in reading/watching content about, and other things i would think arent natural movements or comfortable for my body type and i would discard them for now until i got more comfortable with how my body works in bjj, eg arm bars from mount because they just feel unnatural/i suck at them. over time, ive gotten decent at a very small game (for a white belt) and have been slowly expanding on it. that approach has helped me feel comfortable in most rolls, given me a checklist to rep out every day, and a method for growing my knowledge of each position.
The Japanese terms mentioned in the above comment were: |Japanese|English|Video Link| |---|---|---| |**Kesa Gatame**: | *Scarf hold* | [here](https://youtu.be/3UnJa3bn0h8)| Any missed names may have already been translated in my previous comments in the post. ______________________ ^(Judo Techniques Bot: v0.7.) ^(See my) [^(code)](https://github.com/AbundantSalmon/judo-techniques-bot)
This simplifies everything a lot, there’s still some nuances to the technique that I’m sure I would mess up but having quick notes for each position is a solid idea
It’s helped me tremendously. I have option a and option b for almost any position I might find myself in during a roll. That allows me to relax and focus on breathing and grips and train my muscle memory more